SAN ANTONIO-For anyone wondering whether Northwestern's defense was an elite unit or more the product of watered-down Big Ten offenses, the answer came emphatically on Monday night at the Alamo Bowl.

There, the Wildcats took the teeth out of the high-powered Missouri Tiger offense in a 30-23 overtime loss. It was the type of defensive performance not seen from a Northwestern team since the glory days of the mid-1990s, when head coach Pat Fitzgerald was roaming the field as a linebacker.